July 21, 2014

I’m running down a dark alley with a look of fear on my face. It’s just stopped raining, so I slip and fall. I clamor to get up, and continue to run into a giant panoramic of a creepily-lit, post-apocalytic, gritty Los Angeles. Somewhere within my first few minutes of listening to Celestite, this is […]

When the lineup of Dillinger Escape Plan, Trash Talk, Retox, and Shining showed up in my inbox, I wept for my future. How would I survive this show? 4 intense bands in one night at the warehouse-y Echoplex sounded menacing…and super rad. Truth be told, I was dead already when I got to the venue, […]

April 24, 2014 | I spoke with the Shining vocalist about their high energy tour with Dillinger Escape Plan, Trash Talk, and Retox, where Jazz met Metal for him, being labeled as a ‘progressive band’, their Nine Inch Nails connection, and what he’d like to do for fun. Filmed at the Echoplex, Los Angeles.

LA on a quiet night can seem oddly discordant, like the dull underbelly of a bright bug. As I drove the dark, empty streets to my first show of the year, I remembered that I began last year with Neurosis. My head was awhirl as my car was filled with the sounds of Nachtmystium’s […]

It was Monday night, at that time of year where hot and cold battle each other in the air, and the sun going down earlier imbues some primordial instinct on you that you should stay in your cave. Not me. Echo Park’s downtown-meets-neighborhood vibe looked like a weekend hangover as I wrongly maneuvered my way […]

The Power of the Riff shows have become something I look forward to every year; it is my taste of the festivals I bypass all over the world all summer long. This is much more my speed: an intimate setting filled with bands old and new spanning multiple dark corners of the metal genre. The […]

“Why isn’t anyone here?” 10 minutes later and a trek down a homeless person addled stairway to the other entrance and back. “How did so many people suddenly get here?” “I don’t know when the last time I waited in line for a show was.” “Everyone here is so young!” “Why does everyone smoke!?” It […]

I’ve had the same conversation many times lately, some with fellow writers, some with the makers of the music itself: “I’m kinda burned out on metal.” As I walked through the doors of the Echoplex with a friend I think I’ve only been to metal shows with, I’ll have to admit it felt odd at […]

People often ask me what HardRockChick is. It’s not exactly a music blog- I don’t do record reviews….my live show reviews aren’t even really reviews. I try to explain to people that HardRockChick is pretty much my diary that has followed the story of my life for the past almost five years now, and how […]

With the amount of shows I travel to, it was bound to happen at some point. Canceled. The C word. The final Nine Inch Nails shows that people had traveled from all over the world for- two of the last three were canceled and then rescheduled for the following week. Trent was sick and had […]